Just a couple of announcements.
1. CabinGirl updated the Books with Buzz in the left margins. Lots of cool books. I get 7.5% of anything you buy through our Powell’s link and I sure could use a nice check from them because ad sales are pathetic so far this year.
2. Skippy gave me screenshots of the old blogrolls at Atrios and Daily Kos. The Daily Kos is a little old, but I hope it captures all the blogs that were dropped. I’m going through them to determine which blogs were dropped. And if they are not already on my blogroll I will check to see if they are still active. If they are, I will put them on my blogroll. I like reciprocal links (who doesn’t?) but I am doing this unilaterally. I’m doing this just to lend a hand to my fellow bloggers.
3. This weekend I am going to work through all the suggestions for new blog rules that were submitted to me. I’ve already read them once, but I want to spend some time on it. I’ll announce something on that this weekend sometime.
4. We may have a real-life Presidential contender coming to visit. We’re still working out the details, but we are probably going to want to have you prepare some questions in advance because the candidate will only have 45 minutes or so to spend on the blog. I’ll post more on that when we get the timing nailed down.
5. Anything on your mind?
Just a thought, Crashing the Gate (bottom) is probably no longer a book with buzz.
Shall we ponder whether it’s worth the effort to delete? 🙂
Got a suggestion for a replacement?
Does it have to be political nonfiction?
I tend to agree — its time of “buzz” is probably done. IMO it’s influenced who it’s going to influence. Political books like it don’t have an incredibly long shelf life in my experience, with a few exceptions for authors like Gore Vidal.
But eh, doesn’t make a huge difference to me.
But it is 30% percent off..in more ways than one.
I’m open to suggestions, not necessarily political nonfiction. I do have a book in mind, but if you’ve been reading something that you think other folks here might be interested in, let me know.
Ravi Batra’s: The New Golden Age: The Coming Revolution Against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos
Thanks. I’ll make a space for it.
I’m into “Alan Quartermain” by H. Rider Haggard. you can find it here… You will need to do a search on the author or title.
‘Alan Quartermain’ is one of the characters in the movie – ‘The league of Extraordinary Gentlemen’…
There’s lots more in the Cranky Librarians collection of course!
The late Senator Paul Wellstone’s Conscience Of A Liberal would be a good addition too. I have a feeling I’ll be going back to it for advice for a long, long time.
I’m buying a copy to donate to our county library.
Fantastic book.
Well, since you both recommended it…
brilliant!
Good on you for adding to the blogroll. I resolved as I was going to bed last night to try to spend more of my time on a wider variety of smaller blogs, not just because of yesterday’s brouha, but because of various factors I’ve been considering for months. Also, I’ve been trying to figure out whether I realistically have time for my own local blog; at the moment, I’m leaning toward “probably not this semester”, but I’m still mulling it.
In the end, I think it’s better for everybody to build and protect diversity among left blogs.
My girlfriend and I were just talking about placing a book order, and we try to do it through powell’s anyway, so I’ll make sure when we’re ready to do it through your link.
In the end, I think it’s better for everybody to build and protect diversity among left blogs.
I donno??? I guess it depends on whether the diversity comes together at election time to make a stronger result or not??
The term divide and conquer can be used in politics as well. Therefore so as long as divide and come together is the new term, fine. However, divide and conquer won’t help. Are there any logical conclusions or outright plans to heal or bring diversity together or are these fiefdom wars going to leave meaningful scars??
i can’t believe any progressive is going to not vote for a candidate because kos is endorsing him, out of some kind of obstinancy.
we pretty well came together to win the last elections, and i think we as a movement are getting stronger every day, in spite of this little blogroll tiff.
Thank you for the update on recent sugestions Mr BooMan.
This is where it`s at in LA; It has been an ongoing, sick example of man`s inhumanity to man.
“* Witnesses say a hospital van left a homeless patient on Skid Row in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — A hospital van dropped off a paraplegic man on Skid Row, allegedly leaving him crawling in the street with nothing more than a soiled gown and a broken colostomy bag, police said.”
This isn’t the first time stories of dumping patients on Skid Row have surfaced-it’s unbelievably sickening for the presumed richest country in the world to be ‘dumping’ people off like this-no doubt to die. With bush wanting to cut about 78 Billion to Medicare and Medicaid it seems like he’d just like all of us to just give up and die and get it over with.
Yikes.
I’m glad people noticed. I wonder how often this sort of thing happens without notice.
It was observed, more than once, by undercover reporters, who have filmed ambulances, from hospitals all over the county, dumping patients, who can hardly fend for themselves, in a “no man`s land”, populated by those left to fend for themselves. If the dumpees were insured, they would be treated this way, only when the money ran out. It is strictly illegal, not to mention imo, a ticket to hell, for anyone involved. OTH, it is “inappropriate, but not illegal” for what Feith did. Go figure. A free ride, on the same ticket, for the same destination, for those guys also, will hopefully be issued.
Everyone seems to be upset about various blogroll additions and excisions, from atrios’ update, to kos’s update.Upyernoz mentioned it on his blog, and a friend from ASZ had quite the catty comment a few days ago on the topic.
I mean, really who gives a shit? I’ve linked to BMT, atrios, and daily kos since my blogspot.com days, and I’ve never once been on any of your blogrolls. I didn’t know there was this reciprocity thing going on. I always figured blogrolls were subjective.
You on the blogroll now. An inexcusable oversight on my part.
Hey? What’s a guy got to do to get on yer’ Blogroll?
Not that I haven’t had you in my “top shelf” section forever and a day… lol
Sorry. You are on the tribber list now. Every once in a while I put up a thread for people to list their blogs, and if they are updated regularly I put them up. And if they stop being updated they might get taken off. Although I don’t check very often. I did a clean-up of inactive blogs about a month or so ago.
I was just razzin ya anyways. 🙂 But thank you for the gesture!
If I really wanted to sell my Blog here it would be in my signature… VVV heh
As it is I would rather try and help keep the bandwidth flowing at the pond. Not just for your sake, but for all of the community discussions that the pond allows for.
Also, I see you gave Mr. Fair the Brendan Treatment. Man, that was rough.
Yeah, i was kinda mean. But WTF?
It’s like I mentioned to Tena in atrios’ thread on the same topic: i think it’s an important story that needs to come out. But this guy crying about his poor tormented soul as a result of what he chose to do was just ourageous(it’s not like he was a soldier under orders facing court martial or dishonorable discharge for refusing to obey).
“Please your honor, spare me! I admit that I murdered my parents in cold blood, but have mercy: after all, I am an orphan!”
I’m glad he’s stepping forward, but after three years of silence, I find it difficult to applaud.
Thanks to the above, I went and read your rant and I agree with you. It was the first thing I thought of too. I actually then proceeded to read more on your blog and quite enjoyed it. I’ll definitely check it out again in the future!
As far as I’m concerned, it’s about building a sense of community among liberal bloggers versus tearing down that sense of community.
Some of the bloggers who are now absent from the dKos blogroll are people that helped make dKos a success.
Whatever Markos’s intentions, cutting those people from the blogroll undermines a sense of solidarity not just for among those individuals, but, imo, among the community as a whole.
but it has really opened my eyes.
i wrote two diaries over there, not ragging on kos but expressing my hurt feelings, giving my blogging credentials (which are actually pretty impressive for a middle aged white character actor) and expressing the feelings said here, to wit: purging a blogroll, whether meant to or not, gives readers a sense that the purged blogs are of no value, and there is a riff in the community rather than a coming together.
the crap i got on my diaries in the comments! man, talk about kool aid! in my second diary, i specifically stated, “hey, i’m over the fact you took me off the roll, kos, i just think you should keep the link to the page w/the blogs of the registered dkos users on your roll, it’s only good form.” (well not in those words, but you get the idea).
people told me i was whining and i was not worthy to be read and you would have f*cking thought i was amanda marcotte flipping off the pope at mass or something!
talk about kool-aid! the cult of kos is just too weird for me to wrap my head around!
booman is now my kos-substitute!
Thanks, skippybkroo.
What was your name over there?
In any case, I actually don’t think that there is a “cult of kos” at dKos.
People constantly complain about hero-worship and group-think, but for the most part… not so much.
Markos is merely the administrator.
It’s the community that counts.
The Unity08 have hired a paid per post usenet spammer to spam alt.politics.democrats.d with pro-McCain material.
If we are frustrated with both the Democrats and Republicans McCain is supposed to be an alternative. As if the main reason we aren’t frustrated with both of them is because they both supported the war. This Unity08 movement is nothing but an attempt by the Neocons to dominate independent progressives as well as the two major parties.
Booman what do you get from Overstock when a book is sold through them. I’ve bought several books through the links on your site both with Powells and Overstock. Overstock gives great prices but I’m wondering if I need throw you a bone by alternating with Powells? 7.5% sounds pretty righteous.
I’m embarassed to say that I don’t know the answer to that question. I get a check from them every three months for anywhere between 2 and 12 bucks. So I haven’t paid a lot of attention. I think it is less than 7.5% though.
I know that iTunes pays 5%, so I’m guessing Overstock is the same. I could check on it.
Powells advantage is you can get signed copies and first editions. I have a signed copy of American Theocracy (if you can call the squiggle a signature) from them and a first edition of Tiger Force.
Thanks for the bloglist. I’ve lurked at DKOS for a while, starting with them and going through the bloglist looking for good reading material.
Looks like I’ll be starting my days with you now. Can take only so much wonk-election stuff, and KOS seems stuck on only listing that kind of stuff on his blogroll for now. Anyway, Hello all. Maybe I’ll even post a diary or two now that I’m finally an official account holder at a blog, and not just a lurker anymore.
Welcome! Hello, howdy and what’s up?
Don’t know if there’s a welcome wagon up today, but definitely stop by the lounge and say hello. :<)
Hi AP,
You beat me to it.
How’s it going tonight?
It’s OK. Thanks for asking.
(((rimshot)))
:<)
I’m just glad the weekend is here. I’m exhausted.
Welcome, mcf!
This is a good neighborhood – high signal/noise ratio.
Head over to the Froggy Bottom Cafe (see Recent Diaries) and introduce yourself – have a drink with us and get some mojo.
Hello.
A friend of mine told me about these blogroll happenings by way of skippy- and as I’ve been following it, all these blogs I’d never looked at before have come to my attention (including skippy). So hiya, booman, nice to meetcha.
Hi flipper, and welcome to you, too!
Hop over to the Cafe and say hello there as well.
thanks!
See a tongue-in-cheek visual of “Nancy’s Flight Of Fancy”…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
on the “Plane Truth” — turns out that it was a report from our friends at the Washington Times that got totally blown out of proportion by the Republicans on the Hill.
I try to be tolerant toward religions other than my own…but the Moonies and their media empire are enough to tax the patience of a saint…
Tom Engelhardt has an excellent piece on TomDispatch about how official Washington is very worried that Bush is going to attack Iran, yet feels powerless to stop it: Thelma and Louise Imperialism: Over the Cliff with George and Dick?. It’s well worth a read.
Can someone tell me why one virtually never sees reference to TomDispatch in the progressive blogosphere? (That people at dKos don’t know of it doesn’t surprise me, but I don’t see references to it at BT or ET, either. The only place I’ve seen posts from there is SmirkingChimp and TruthDig.) He performs a function similar to Juan Cole’s, but is broader, has more of a bird’s eye view, and makes more of an effort at putting things in context. Cole writes what amounts to telegraphic dispatches, while Engelhart writes synthetic essays on current events. Also, most of his posts consist of an introduction written by him followed by a piece written by a guest. The only thing I can think of is that he is older than most bloggers, so maybe they find his style too old-fashioned? But he’s a very good and witty writer.
BooMan, I would highly recommend that you put TomDispatch on your blogroll (even though it’s not your typical blog, since visitors can’t post).
Tom Engelhardt’s signature states that he “is the co-founder of the American Empire Project” (which I don’t know much about). He analyzes US behavior using the perspective that it is an empire. (A formative experience for him was writing a book about the Vietnam War; Chalmers Johnson is one of his regular guest writers.) That is why the site is so refreshing.
It would also explain why he is unacceptable at places like dKos and myDD. (Even though I would not call him a radical, like many of the people who are published in CounterPunch.) But it is acceptable to use the “E” word at BT, surely? Or do I misunderstand the site? Given that Atlanticism gets recurrently bashed at BT’s sister site, I should think it is acceptable, but I just wanted to make sure.
Welcome to the pond!
Just about everything seems to be fair game here, IMHO. The only thing that’s strongly frowned upon is personal attacks on individuals, IE, prickish behavior;-)
Here’s some advice from Soj. If you’d like more, the rest of the FAQ is here.
Funny, I had just finished reading that article and yes it was very good.
I read that website every day. That one and Belgravia Dispatch. That’s more my style than all the snarky stuff.
Pax
adding the blogs purged from duncan and markos’s sites is pretty damn solid of you, man!
good on ya!
in the very near future — maybe I’ll head over to Powell’s and put together my wish list. (Still trying to find Helen Thomas’ latest book — maybe I’ll just get it from Powell’s and save frustrations…) I order so much damn stuff online that the postal carrier recognizes my name and apartment number when I see her at the package room…
just spent about $80+ on books…but I got the last copy of the Thomas book, a Jane Yolen book on writing I’ve never heard of, a few other finds, and Susie Bright’s How To Write a Dirty Story which I checked out from the library once and didn’t want to take back… 😉
Hey, I just thought I’d float this to see how much interest there was in Taiwan issues.
SNIP–
His reasoning?…
I don’t know what you all think, but I can guarantee that the Chinese will see this as fightin’ talk…
OOPS… link
I’ve had you on my blogroll (Under group blogs) since thes blog started. I wonder if you might consider adding my blog to your blogroll? Mine is Politics Plus Stuff. I would appreciate a little more traffic.
Thanks for the excellant job you do here.